State Senate remains a house divided

Tim Roske / APDemocratic state senators (top), except for Pedro Espada, D-Bronx, remain seated as Republican senators and staff begin a session Tuesday with the Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol in Albany.

Albany --The extraordinary session Gov. David Paterson ordered Tuesday to bring together warring factions of the state Senate, in the end, worked only to show how divided the Senate remains.

During the brief but dramatic meeting -- the first since the June 8 coup -- Senate Democrats and Republicans hurled insults at one another, shouted across the aisle and tried to drown each other out with constant interruptions. The session quickly deteriorated into two distinct meetings taking place side by side.

In one corner, Elmira Republican Sen. George Winner tried to lead the Republicans by following the orders of Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos. In the other, Democrat Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, of Westchester, looked to Democratic Majority Leader Malcolm Smith to lead the meeting. The result was chaos. The four leaders spoke over one another. People laughed and snickered in the stands. A Republican senator stood to take a picture. A Democrat motioned with his hand to his head, silently saying: "Shoot me."

Sen. Darrel Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent, described the scene as "a tempest in a teapot."

At one point, Winner told Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, a Bronx Democrat who was laughing, "You're out of order."

Hassell-Thompson shouted back, "You're out of order. Don't you dare tell me I'm out of order."

The only thing both sides could agree on: There were no bills in the chamber for senators to consider. Republicans blamed the Democrats, and the Democrats blamed Paterson.

Twittering the Senate

Post-Standard reporter Delen Goldberg filed reports Tuesday from Albany on Twitter that were also available at Syracuse.com. A sample:

• Governor numbered today's bills incorrectly. They are being reprinted
• GOP Sen. #George Winner and Dem #Stewart-Cousins run session at same time
• Overheard: "It's like they are running two #Senate sessions!"
• GOP adjorns session again. Dems at ease. Still no gov
• No sign of the gov or the bills he wants senators to vote on
• Now both sides are arguing, interrupting and vetoing each other
• ...And the Dems immediately called another session
• Skelos just adjorned session until 5 p.m. today...

Democratic legislators said the governor failed to deliver the correct bill jackets to the Senate. Paterson's staff misnumbered them, so they had to be reprinted, they said.

Paterson denied he was at fault for the holdup, saying his office delivered the paperwork at 1 p.m. -- two hours before session.

Besides, Paterson said, "you can print bills and pass bills at the same time. There's really no more tolerance for these excuses, these games and these mischaracterizations of the truth."

The drama-filled session came after Democrats locked themselves in the Senate chamber more than two hours before the scheduled start of session, and after Republicans, for the fourth time, led their own, ineffective 31-person session. Democrats attended but protested by remaining seated during the Pledge of Allegiance and saying nothing throughout.

"The only person who can call session is Malcolm Smith," said Sen. David Valesky, D-Oneida.

Republicans and Democrats had met earlier Tuesday to negotiate but, as has been the case for the past two weeks, failed to work out a power-sharing agreement.

Paterson called Tuesday's showing abhorrent. "I have been a public servant for over 20 years, and what I've seen the last two weeks in the Senate disgusts me," Paterson said.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans said they made progress. Each side passed several home-rule bills during the sessions led by their party. But the legality of any of the votes is questionable -- even according to the governor, who said he will have his lawyers look into it.

Regardless, Paterson vowed to keep lawmakers in Albany until they finish their work. He called another extraordinary session for 3 p.m. today.

"They will stay here every day until they resolve it," Paterson said. "I am not interested in what they think of me or what they have to say that distracts us from getting the people's business done."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Delen Goldberg at dgoldberg@syracuse.com or 470-2274.